Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

Hi there,
I have noticed a few people mentioning that they have made Jane Hornby’s easy vanilla cake with great success so I was just wondering if you usually use the sugar syrup or not? I’ve just made this cake this afternoon and have never used sugar syrup before and after i’d added it all and let it sit for a while it still seemed quite wet. I was just wondering if this was normal when using a syrup and if people get best results with or without? I haven’t got any time to do anything with it for a few days so I’ve popped it in the freezer hoping for the best! Also it didn’t seem that deep do most people do an extra layer? Sorry, I’m finding the more I delve into baking the less I seem to know!
Thank you very much in advance 🙂

Hello fi28

I love all Jane Hornby’s recipes. They are down to earth honest recipes which have never let me down. I originally introduced them to members on this site. Apart from susbstituting the milk with water, I use all the other ingredients including the syrup. The syrup makes the cake really moist and improves it’s keeping qualitites for a few extra days. Not everyone bothers with the syrup as the cake is very moist already from the added yogurt. I never freeze a cake with syrup drench, I used to do it until I found the sugar crystallised and made little crunchy hard lumps in the cake. I don’t know whether anyone else has ever experience the same thing but I don’t recommend doing it. Jane says it’s fine freezing the cake with syrup so perhaps it’s the way I make mine which makes it go the way it does. I bake the spong in a regular 3″ deep cake tin which produces a cake almost 3″ tall which gets layered into three. Not sure why your cake turned out shallow, you didn’t by any chance use medium eggs instead of large? It’s an easy mistake to make. Another reason could be if you over mixed the flour in a curdled mixture. Over mixing cake batter develops the gluten in the flour which makes a less deep and less softer cake. It could be a number of other things including the temperature of your own oven. This blog may be of some help identifying some of the problems ( not all) associated with baking: Hope it helps.
http://www.cakeflix.com/blog/baking-the-perfect-cake-why-things-go-wrong

Hello madeitwithlove,
Thank you so much for your help I massively appreciate you taking the time to share your knowledge. Do you usually put the sugar syrup on when it’s defrosted? Also can I ask why you substitute the milk for water?
Who knew a vanilla sponge could be such a minefield! I’m finding the more I try to learn the more confused I get. Can I please ask is this the type of cake you offer when people want a “plain sponge” for all occasions eg. birthday, carving and stacking etc or do you do different types for different things like madeira etc?
Sorry to bombard you with questions it sounds silly but it’s hard to know what’s best as you can read so many conflicting opinions it’s lovely to hear from somebody with great knowledge.P.S I think i did use medium eggs!
Thank you very much x

I use this recipe all the time, with the syrup, and frequently freeze it and have never had a problem. It’s great because it is dense enough to carve, stack etc but is more moist than a Madeira. I do make the cake a little deeper than the original recipe. For an 8″ round I use 6 large eggs and round all the other ingredients up accordingly. I also bake it at 130 degrees so it doesn’t dome too much (it may take a little longer, check it with a wooden skewer). I also use it for cupcakes, with the syrup!

Thanks for your tips doodlecake, so good to have another opinion.

Hi fi28

I think you’ve just had a little bit of a bad experience, we all do from time to time. Bake it again, I think you’ll find it will turn out better.
I’ve never had a problem with the height but if you want to increase the ingredients you can use either of these two tools to scale the recipe up slightly:
http://www.cakeflix.com/blog/how-to-work-out-what-size-cake-tin-to-use

The best way to get to know what type of cake to use for different occasional is to master a few basic recipes. Basic recipes can be built upon. There’s not much point in randomly picking recipes from the internet, they don’t always turn out as they should. There are some very credible no nonsense recipes, like the Jane Hornby ones, Delia Smith and Fiona Cairns. I do use some Mary Berry recipes, again the simple ones.
My suggestion would be a back to basics approach. Perfect a simple victoria sponge which can be the base for other flavours, a madeira and a chocolate mud cake. Once these are perfected you can start experimenting with other ingredients and either creating your own recipes or understanding the millions of recipes so readily available. Personally I have a very small repertoire in cakes, a good amount of fillings, flavours, textures and syrups. I don’t find the need to bake all the fancy complicated recipes. I do have a wide range of simple plated dessert recipes which are used for entertaining or as family puddings.
Baking simple recipes will give you an idea about density of cakes, mixing methods and temperatures to bake at. Once you know the foundations, everything else falls into place, like which type of cakes to use for carving and stacking, what to use for tea time table and what keeps best if using in a wedding tier.

This particular recipe I feel is an all rounder, good for carving, and stacking or just to enjoy as a plain sponge with a cup of tea. Have it partly frozen if carving to eliminate too many crumbs and to help with shaping. It’s ideal if you don’t want to use an even denser madeira. The milk and yogurt used in the recipe will impact on the shelf life which will be approx three days or four days. Madeira cake will last two weeks from baking to eating and some chocolate mud cakes approx ten days. Victoria sponge recipes are not really suited for stacking because they are too soft and best eaten on day of production. If you increase the flour only in a given victoria recipe it will make it denser and more appropriate as a tier providing it is being used with similarly weighted cakes. The more dense a cake the better it is for carving and stacking.
I use syrup on defrosted or fresh baked cakes just prior to filling. Madeira cake soaks syrup slowly and benefits from brushing both sides of each layer. I don’t use milk, the recipe uses yogurt, water as additional moisture is suffcient.
My own experience of baking is very simple, there are far more experienced bakers on this site than me. As I’ve mentioned already, I stick to what I know when baking for special occasions. It saves a lot of stress and wastage of ingredients and other resources. I’m always experimenting but that’s for my own pleasure which extends into more experience. Practice mise en place and you won’t get confused or stressed. Paul said in one of his tutorials stress shows in what you produce. Hope some of this helps. x

Thank you madeitwithlove and doodlecake so much for all your help and advice. It is very much appreciated x

I make this too, with syrup, and never had anyone not comment, how nice it is, and I freeze it too.

Thank you all I will have another go as it sounds like it’s a popular cake!